Newsline: Canadian embassies face rising security threats

September 28, 2015 at 10:29 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: Canada

When Stephen Harper faces his rivals in a key foreign policy debate Monday night, he’ll confront new revelations about the safety of Canadian embassies abroad. CTV News has learned many of Canada’s diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa are not safe – putting the lives of diplomats and staff at risk. A memo prepared for a recent deputy ministers’ meeting says security threats are on the rise, and “20 per cent of missions are now categorized as high risk.” The document, dated Sept. 9 and marked secret, says security needs to be more robust in critical threat locations such as Afghanistan, Iraq and South Sudan. It warns the Foreign Affairs budget is “insufficient to …meet the complex security requirements.”